Tips for Draft Master or Draft Expert Leagues-Part 1

I have drafted in several draft masters drafts this season and decided to share some tips.

Tips
1) It is a total points league not H2H so you need to have a different mindset altogether. You always want to have at least two QB, TE, K and Defense. I suggest three of each but will explain why later. You need two of each because you cannot go to the waiver wire to add free agents on bye weeks. In a Draft Masters or Draft Experts league, it is draft and forget; meaning there are no free agent transactions. What you draft is what you get for the entire season. The format gives you the best score each week based on who is on your roster. Therefore, if you have only one kicker, then the week he is on a bye you will get no kicker points. Always have at least one extra player at each spot to cover for the byes and when injuries occur.

2) Watch the bye weeks. Remember NO adds or drops. Therefore, if you have only two QBs and they are both on the same bye week you have hosed yourself out of QB points one week. Even if you have three QBs and only two are on the same bye week you lose their ability to back up the other one on a down week, when two are out on the same bye week.
You cannot leave points missing like that.

3) Try and get starters used for a flex position all from different bye weeks. This is tough and is not a must just a good to know type thing. In FFPC, you start 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE and 2 flex so that is 7 players starting from those 3 positions. There are 7 bye weeks (weeks 4-10). If each of the starters is out on bye on a separate week then you only need one strong replacement to step up each week from your bench to have steady points. If three or more starters are out on the same week that could potentially be a very bad week and reduce your overall points significantly.

4) If the roster size allows it, draft three QBs, TEs, Ks and Defenses. Why? The extra player at each position will give you on average about 30 points above most combinations of QBs, TEs, Ks and Defenses. Try it yourself. Look at the scores for most combinations of players then factor in an additional player from the bottom 25th -32nd. In many cases the extra player is used on the two bye weeks when only one of the combinations of players is available and then on a few more weeks he may be the top player and give you a few points more then you would have had. All in all 4-5 weeks as your top player at that position and giving you 6 more points each of those weeks means 25-30 extra points. Now if you do that at each of the positions (QB, TE, K and Defense) you have just guaranteed yourself another 100-120 points. What have you lost? Four players who were deep sleepers or handcuffs. You lost your RB8 and 9 and WR8 and 9. If you think one of the RBs and WRs at those spots can give you 100 extra points over your starters and backups, then by all means continue to draft them. I prefer easy extra points versus banking on a deep sleeper who will only start if my starters are hurt. I rationalize it that if my RB1 gets hurt and I need help and have to rely on my RB8 or 9, my season is over anyway.


5) Never wait until the last round to draft one of those third QB, TE, K or defenses unless you absolutely know there will be enough for you in the last round. Bottom line is draft all of the third QB, TE, K and Defenses before the last round. Save the last pick for an extra WR sleeper.

6) Look at combos: QB by committee, TE by committee, defense by committee etc. FFGuys.com always has articles about which combos are best to go with. Look at these articles and plan whom you think you can get and who works best.

7) Look at who is left and how best to draft. If you have three TEs with the same bye week to choose from for your TE2 and another TE with a different bye week, who do you pick? Go with one of the TEs from the same bye because chances are your third TE choices are less likely to be from that bye week now that so many were gone. Basically try and look ahead to which TEs will be left and their bye weeks. Try to draft a player who has a bye week that is not the same as the majority of the players from that position left to draft.

Check back tomorrow for more Draft Master Tips!

Fantasy Football Tips ($9.95, www.amazon.com/dp/0982428669)

Fantasy Football Guidebook: Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football ($19.95 on sale for $17.95) http://www.amazon.com/1602640203

Fantasy Football Almanac 2009: The Essential Fantasy Football Reference Guide ($12.95, http://www.amazon.com/1602643989)

Fantasy Football Tip # 203 Do not Help Your Opponents!

Fantasy Football Tip # 203 Do not Help Your Opponents!

I drafted in a Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC, http://www.theffpc.com/) draft on Monday 10 Aug. It is an Action 77 Draft Masters league which is a “draft and forget” or “best ball” format.

At some point, an owner drafted Matt Stover at kicker. On the online chat box I posted “Ouch isn’t Stover dead or something” trying to be cute, knowing that Stover was a free agent.

The reality is that Baltimore released Stover simply because they did not think he had the leg strength anymore. Despite being one of the NFLs most accurate kickers (when was the last time he missed a XP?), his true makeable (is this a word?) FG distance was shrinking. Therefore, they did not resign him and instead opted to let Steve Hauschka and Graham Gono fight for the position. Maybe they were also tired of having two kickers, Stover and the other kicker for kickoffs (again due to leg strength). But I digress.

Back to the tip.

I should not have said anything.
Why tell my opponent that he may have a chink in his armor in a kicker that he thinks is starting but is not? If I had kept my big mouth shut, he may have drafted only two kickers (unlikely but you never know-check back on Saturday for Draft Master tips), one of which may have been out of work. In this “dream” scenario, his other kicker gets hurt in week one and now he has no kicker points for the rest of the season. Since it is draft and forget, there are no free agent pickups!

Therefore, DO NOT HELP YOUR OPPONENTS during the draft. Even an innocent dig may prove to be a vital help to an otherwise content owner. And it is even more important in a Draft Masters league where no free agent pickups are allowed. In a DM league it is all about the draft baby!

Player Note: Stover may end up coming back to Baltimore or be picked up by another team with a kicker issue, but I am not going to draft him.

Fantasy Football Tips ($9.95, www.amazon.com/dp/0982428669) has 201 Tips so I will be adding additional ones like this one here at my blog on occassion.

Sam Hendricks, author
Fantasy Football Guidebook: Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football ($19.95 on sale for $17.95) http://www.amazon.com/1602640203

Fantasy Football Index Expert Auction Draft

Now that the Fantasy Football magazines have hit the bookstore shelves, I can discuss some of my expert teams. Today I am analyzing my Fantasy Football Index Mock Auction team. You can find the entire draft along with my rankings in Fantasy Football Index 2009 Draft Guide on the following pages;

Fantasy Expert Player Rankings page 44-61 (Including a Question and Answer Interview on Tight Ends on page 61
Expert Mock Auction pages 68-73

11 Experts (Including Chris Harris-ESPN, Dave Gerczak-BFD FF, David Dodds-FFGuys and Scott Pianowksi-Yahoo!) and 1 Fantasy Index reader particapated on May 17 in this auction. Each team starts with a $200 auction budget and must pick 22 players for a starting roster of 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 DEF.

Last year I finished a close second to Ian Allen after leading for much of the final stretch. A hurt MB3 wrecked any chance of holding on to first place.

It is a DraftMasters (or DraftExperts) format. This means it is a best ball format where there are no free agent pickups during the season. So it is a “draft and forget” league where the computer will automatically start the player with the best performance for the week for you. My team is below with the bid cost.

Fantasy Football Guidebook
QB Donovan McNabb 16
Carson Palmer 11

RB Chris Johnson 48
Brandon Jacobs 36
Larry Johnson 15
Ahmad Bradshaw 5
LaMont Jordan 1
Michael Pittman 1

WR Anquan Boldin 19
Antonio Bryant 11
Lance Moore 8
Kevin Curtis 5
Derrick Mason 4
Devery Henderson 3
Patrick Crayton 2
Austin Collie 1

TE Owen Daniels 6
Brandon Pettigrew 2

K Nick Folk 1
Shayne Graham 1

DEF Chicago Bears 2
Baltimore Ravens 2

Overall I think it is fairly strong at every position except WR. I am hoping that Boldin and Bryant can be good enough WR1 and WR2 and the others can come up with a WR3 every week I have two NO WRs in Lance Moore and D Henderson so I am hoping for a good year again for Drew Brees. Kevin Curtis could surprise if the rookie J Maclin is slow to produce for Phil.

In the magazine, they ask me to discuss my outlook for Larry Johnson.
“I am cautiously optimsitic about LJ as he and KC seem to have kissed and made up. He had a good rushing avg in 2008 (4.5 yards per carry) and with Matt Cassel at QB should not see as many eight-man fronts. He is Kansas City’s starter and I see a healthy LJ with 1,250 yards and 8 TDs.”

Best picks: Either QB and Owen Daniels for $6 I think he could be a Top 5 TE this year.

Regrets: Pulling the trigger on Chris Johnson for $48. I wish I had waited and gotten two lesser RBs for $40 and saved some of those dollars for later in the draft. $1 later in the draft is worth a ton more than $1 early on when bidding is crazy!

Read more in Fantasy Index Magazine in stores now!

Sam Hendricks, author
Fantasy Football Tips ($9.95) http://www.amazon.com/0982428669
Fantasy Football Guidebook: Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football ($19.95 on sale for $17.95) http://www.amazon.com/1602640203

2009 FFPC Pro's vs Joe's Challenge

The 2009 FFPC Pros vs Joes Draft Challenge concept is simple. Take a group of hard core FFPC fantasy players (the Joes) and pit them against a contingent of fantasy industry experts (the Pros). There are 72 teams participating (half pros and half Joes). The overall field is divided into separate 'Divisions'. Each division of 12 conducts their own draft. All teams drafted are tossed into one master league to compete. The highest scoring team across all divisions is crowned the 2009 FFPC Pros vs Joes Draft Challenge Champion. One team wins, period.

The scoring system is of course the signature FFPC scoring (with 1.5 points per catch for TE). It's a DraftExperts format which is essentially a "Best Ball" league where the system automatically fills out your weekly roster with your best performing players at each position. No waiver wire moves or setting of lineups by the participants. Once you draft your team of 26 players, you're administrative duties are done for the year. Just monitor the leaderboard as the year goes on.

What do they win? Originally it was just bragging rights with a claim to the title of the 2009 FFPC Pros vs Joes Draft Challenge Champion.But we now have the following prizes or bounties on the table.
Footballguys has generously offered up a three year Footballguys subscription to the top team in each of these different leagues.
FantasyFootballTrader will offer a 2010 subscription to every Joe across all the 5 leagues that outscores them.
Draftsharks is offering a free lifetime subscription to any Joe who wins their league. Plus $100 to any Joe who wins the league that Draftsharks is is in.
Fantasy Football Oasis will offer $50 cash to the overall champion.
BFD Fantasy Football has stated that 'Any Joe in my league that beats me gets A $77 draft for 2010 AND a subscription to ANY ONE FF Website of their choice that is part of the Joes vs. Pros challenge.'
FantasyMojo has recruited a trophy sponsor to award our overall winner this sweet silver cup trophy (a $169 value) courtesy of FantasyTrophy.com
The Yellow Line is Unofficial will buy an entry into a FFPC-77 next year for any Pro that wins the overall
FFGuidebook is offering a copy of "Fantasy Football Guidebook: Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football" to any Joe that wins their Division. Also, they are offering a copy of "Fantasy Football Tips: 201 Ways to Win through Player Rankings, Cheat Sheets and Better Drafting" to any Joe (that blows) and comes in last in their division.
FantasyFootballWhiz will offer a free RapidDraft in 2010 to any Joe that wins any one of the leagues
MockDraftCentral is giving an Official Draft Shirt to every division winner.
JunkyardJake would like to bestow upon the overall winner a Mike Ditka 92-0 T shirt

And courtesy of Dave and Alex, we have this incentive - FFPC Pros vs. Joes Clean Sweep BonusIf either the Pros side or the Joes side win all 6 leagues (winner means having top scoring team only in each league), The FFPC will award $150 per team (in FFPC dollars towards future FFPC Leagues) to:The 6 league winners ANDthe other 30 owners on that team's side.That is correct, if either side gets a clean sweep, ALL 36 PLAYERS on that team get $150 towards future FFPC Sat leagues or the Main Event. However, if one side wins 5 leagues and the other wins 1, no one gets anything. Hence the word "bonus". Retail value is $5400

I am a Pro in the 6th Division-Irvin's "Candy" Store

Thursday, August 13th, 9:00 pm EST

Fantasy Hulks,MVN.com,FFGuidebook.com (slam),Pigskin Addiction,Fighting Chance Fantasy,MockDraftCentralJoes- ColtsFan, Bald is Beautiful, Azzurri, Zeus, Angry Zygotes, Shifty50

Here is the draft order;

Draft Order

1 Shifty50

2 Pigskin Addiction

3 Bald is Beautiful

4 MockDraftCentral

5 Zeus

6 MVN.com

7 ColtsFan

8 Fantasy Hulks

9 Angry Zygotes

10 Fighting Chance Fantasy

11 Azzurri

12 FFGuidebook.com